Chapter 13
Lacey
I thought breaking into the USB would finally give me my ticket back to living my real life. Instead, I’m still hunkering down in Loganville with Cameron while his team follows up on the information they discovered in the files and folders.
Money laundering. Someone washing dirty cash through Stratford Industries. And Julian Vale’s name is all over it with transaction records tied to offshore accounts. A full-blown conspiracy.
No wonder Adrian was murdered.
And Whitney Stratford is either in on the whole mess or she’s a loose end Vale can’t afford. So, the Select Protectors organization has mobilized to stop a wedding and get the bride-to-be out of harm’s way until they confirm her innocence or not.
Either way, she’s not getting to the chapel on time. Or ever.
I can’t worry about her though. I have my own troubles to sort through. It’s Friday afternoon and I’ve just received a text from my manager at Barringtons telling me they’re shorthanded next week and asking me how much longer I’ll be unavailable.
Even worse, he told me that there’s someone else angling for the promotion I want. Him. And I’ve got a serious strike against me besides all this unexpected personal time off. He’s a guy. Working for a bespoke, exclusive menswear company.
And I’m a girl who knows all too well how easily we can get shunted aside. Let’s face it. Sixty years ago, I’d be lucky to have a credit card and that would only happen if my husband let me have one.
I’m not letting him get that promotion.
I deserve it.
Great. Just great. I’m muttering my worries to myself as I exit the bathroom and bam. I run straight into Cameron’s hard, muscular body. Hell, his muscles pack muscles making him ruggedly handsome, beautiful in an all-male way.
He catches me in his powerful arms, steadying me. “Are you okay?” he asks.
Delicious tingles travel throughout my body and arrow into my core, making my sex throb.
Oh. I’m so not okay. “Fine. Just fine,” I say quickly still letting him hold me because I just want to feel safe, protected.
And he gives me that sensation along with a gazillion other sensations that shoot straight to my core.
“Only… how much longer until I can get back to my regular, old life?” I manage to ask.
He releases me, catches sight of my cell phone still in my hand. “Work bugging you?”
“This can’t go on forever.” Neither can this craving and intense desire we’re trying to avoid caving to, but I don’t voice that reality.
“I just heard from my team,” he says. “The bride’s wedding planner overheard Julian Vale arguing with Stratford Industries CEO about how to get rid of Whitney. Or if they even should.”
“Is she in danger?”
“Not for long,” he says. “Select Protectors is coordinating with the Atlanta PD to extricate Whitney Stratford and bring her to safety,” he says.
“Our team in Virginia is chasing leads to the offshore accounts and running a deep background check on Julian Vale. So far, he’s only a person of interest based on the intel we discovered on the USB. ”
His gaze is intent, focused. Dark and sexy. Oh, I could seriously melt into a puddle right now. “So, you haven’t been able to link him to Adrian’s murder?”
“No. But we will. Only a matter of time.”
“Which is a commodity I’m seriously short of right now,” I say. “If I don’t show up to work on Monday, I’ll definitely lose my chances for that promotion. Maybe even my job.”
Now I struggle to fight back frustrated tears while easing away from Cameron’s comforting, smoking hot body. Oh, how easy would it be to just act on the heat building between us if only to forget about all my troubles?
But I can’t use him that way.
I won’t.
But now that my bestie and her husband have returned to Select Protectors’ headquarters at Starlight Vineyards, I’m lonely.
Still afraid of what is to come. I keep on imagining every worst-case scenario that could happen to me.
And I need a distraction from the dark fear and anxiety swirling around me.
Which leaves only one option. And he’s standing right here.
Cameron’s cell phone pings, and he withdraws it to read the incoming message. “Vale’s missing,” he says.
“And Whitney?” I ask. “What about her?”
“She’s in good hands.”
He doesn’t say anything else. But I know if she’s with one of the Select Protectors, no one will get within an inch of her. “Just like me,” I say, hugging my waist when what I want to do is hug him, hold him.
I want more than his protection.
I want him. I want to be in his hands. His very good hands. Because I know what they can do for me and to me and with me. And my sex is seriously aching for his hands work their magic again.
He locks his eyes with mine, and I can’t hide, won’t hide the desire in my answering gaze.
“Lacey,” he says, moving closer to me until we’re standing toe-to-toe.
Late afternoon sunlight streaming through the living room window halos around him and his body’s warmth washes over me like a caress. Times seems to stop ticking and there is only the sound of our breaths, misty and soft, filling the air between us.
They’re accompanied by my thundering heartbeat racing in my ears, heating me from the inside out. “What?” I whisper.
“You’re almost free.”
“Does that mean I can go home soon? Start working again?” I ask without also voicing my other questions. Does that mean he’ll leave? Return to his life too?
“Only if I’m still protecting you.”
“Okay. Good. That’s really good.” But I want more than his protection. I want him. “But after, you’ll go. I won’t see you again.”
“That’s up to you,” he says. “Because I can’t give you what you want on a day-to-day basis.
I’m not going to sugar coat that reality for you or anyone.
I like you too much to pretend I will,” he says.
“But I’m not going to lie. I want you too much to pretend I don’t.
But I won’t act on it if you can’t accept that about me. ”
He’s like a drug to me. An addiction I can’t shake. Not after that first, incredible time we had sex. “Cameron. I won’t lie either. I want you. A lot. But I don’t know if I can say goodbye to you.”
“How about you focus on all the hellos we’ll have?” He wraps his arm around my waist, tugs me into his chest, and slides his hand up my back until it’s cradling my neck.
I nibble my lower lip, desire threading through my veins, making me tremble. This man, gorgeous and honed to perfection, is more than physically attractive and hot. He’s my protector. I trust him. And I’m safe with him. I wouldn’t have rushed into bed with him if I didn’t believe that deep down.
I believe him now. Even if the hellos might not last forever. Even if they’re just temporary. Or just for now. And when I look into his eyes, I see everything I believe reflecting in his. The hope, the trust, the total rightness of our being together.
And I can’t say no to either of us going for that hope in this moment. “Hellos sound wonderful.”
“Then consider this your first hello. And count on more to come.” He lowers his head, angling mine until our mouths meld, and I welcome him in like a woman starved, thirsty for only one thing, one man.
Him.